Mark Armstrong’s Weekly News Commentary – Friday 20 April 2018

Seventy years later, Israel remains on the map. Like an oasis in the midst of a vast desert, the tiny sliver on the globe is a bastion of freedom like few places on earth. Muslim interests have tried endlessly to eradicate the phenomenon through wars, with terrorism and with mindless accusations of every imaginable evil and they’re not through yet. Well, some of them are. Egypt recognized the expensive futility of the endless state of war and, under Anwar Sadat, made peace. Jordan also came to grips with under the reign of King Hussein after having been defeated and humiliated twice, realizing peaceful coexistence was the only viable option.

Even the wealthiest Gulf kingdoms gave up the public fight, while still allowing radical Islamic religious outfits to preach and facilitate terrorist activities. Terrorist attacks have been visited upon Europe and the United States primarily because of acceptance and support of the Jewish state. But Israel’s list of outright enemies consists of Iran, Syria and a laundry list of terrorist outfits hiding behind the religious rants of radical Islamists.

When President Trump announce that the American Embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem the mainstream media erupted with a series of dark predictions as to the angry reactions across the Arab world potentially leading to war.

For seventy long years hate-filled Imams and sheiks preached of driving the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea as they ran from the fires and explosions of Muslim wrath. Instead, fireworks displays went off in the skies above Jerusalem this week celebrating 70 years and counting. The new American embassy in Jerusalem is expected to open next month.

But Iran, or rather Iranian religious and political leaders are still living the dream, such as it is. A spokesman for their Revolutionary Guard blustered this week that their “finger is on the trigger” of missile systems aimed at Israel and it’s military assets. “Our missiles are ready to be launched at any moment…The only way for you to escape will be to the sea!” There it is, that seventy year old dream of driving the Jews into the sea.

We don’t know how successful Iran has been at placing military assets in Syria, but presume Israel does. The missile air-strikes against Syria’s chemical production and storage facilities apparently went of without a hitch. Apparently no one was even hurt, while structures and storage depots were eliminated. Russia stayed completely out of the way, leaving many a brilliant analyst with crow on his face, even though there are outstanding questions about the validity of chemical attack still circulating.

Other than the obvious tensions between Russia, China and the United States, Iran, with its nuclear ambitions, remains the world’s number one concern. Until a few weeks ago, that dubious honor belonged to North Korea. You haven’t forgotten his threats, or the responses from the Trump administration leading scores of elite media experts to warn that World War III would be ignited by a presidential tweet storm. In case the news organizations forgot to apologize for their criticisms of the unhinged, clinically insane egomaniac who was about to blow up the world inadvertently, that never happened. And when it didn’t, they pretended not to notice.

Now we know that Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA and nominee for Secretary of State has been in high-level negotiations with North Korea, maybe Kim jong un himself. It seems too fantastic to believe, particularly after all the scare-mongering on cable news. Maybe North Korea is leading diplomats down a primrose path and it’s another trick like those played on numerous previous administrations. If so, we’ll know soon enough and the dire predictions will resume. In the mean time, the Japanese are sleeping a lot better without missile tests overhead. Several reports indicate that real progress has been made and that President Trump may indeed meet with Kim jong un on neutral territory some time in the near future.

Lastly, the Russia-collusion story has fallen completely apart, though CNNhas yet to notice. The Comey bombshells weren’t even firecrackers. His classified Memos, released overnight, dispute the posture taken in his book and promotional interviews. His memos exonerate Trump, both on the Russia-collusion accusation and the obstruction of justice claims. Still, the false “dossier” has given Comey and all the sober media analysts the opportunity to use Trump’s name in close proximity to descriptions of ladies of the evening and various unmentionable exploits. They can’t get enough of it. They repeat the same grotesque phrases again and again, (as does Comey in self-righteous whispers) in the apparent hope that the President’s name will become synonymous with the lowest of behavior.

Despite the underhanded efforts of top officials in the FBI, the DoJ, the NSA and the CIA, the truth of their conspiracy in violation of laws they were sworn to uphold and defend, is leaking out more rapidly all the time. Suddenly the “professional career public servants” are playing defense. They were so sure that their activities would be covered by a Hillary Clinton presidency that they got sloppy and put all kinds of evidence against themselves in writing, casually. Even joyfully. That’s how arrogant these people were. Though we’d never heard of some of them at the time, they’re rapidly becoming household names bound for infamy.

The very survival of the United States as a Constitutional Republic still hangs in the balance, despite some of the largely ignored good news. It seems the large corporations, mainstream media, social media and educational institutions are determined that we all bow down to the dictates of political correctness. That’s not going to happen, not even if the pope himself demands it. Especially if the pope demands it!